The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the Ivy League school of violating federal civil rights law by allowing antisemitism to fester on campus after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The 44-page complaint, filed by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in federal court in Massachusetts, alleges Harvard discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The complaint claims Harvard tolerated harassment, intimidation, and exclusion targeting Jewish and Israeli students while selectively enforcing campus rules and failing to discipline protesters who occupied buildings and disrupted campus life meaningfully. The DOJ said Harvard’s own presidential task force found evidence of “the exclusion of Israeli or Zionist students from social spaces and extracurricular activities,” but that the university still failed to take adequate corrective action.
“Since October 7th, 2023, too many of our educational institutions have allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on campus — Harvard included,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department would not tolerate the “harassment, assault, or intimidation of Jewish and Israeli students,” while Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said institutions that accept taxpayer dollars have a duty to protect students’ civil rights.
Harvard cannot continue to take taxpayer funds while turning a blind eye to racial & ethnic abuse against Jewish & Israeli students.
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) March 20, 2026
Today, @CivilRights sued Harvard following an @HHSgov finding that the university violated Title VI by enabling antisemitism on its campus. pic.twitter.com/iStL0rWAtK
The administration is seeking an order forcing Harvard into compliance with Title VI and is also attempting to recover federal funds awarded while the university was allegedly in violation of the law. According to the DOJ, Harvard is set to receive more than $2.6 billion in active grants from HHS alone, not counting money from other agencies.
“When institutions take taxpayer dollars, they accept a duty to protect civil rights,” Kennedy said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit. “We hold Harvard accountable on the principle that antisemitism has no place in any program funded by the American people.”
The lawsuit marks the latest escalation in the White House’s broader campaign against elite universities over campus antisemitism and diversity policies.
It also comes less than a month after the Justice Department sued the University of California, Los Angeles, over what it described as “grossly antisemitic acts” and a failure to protect Jewish and Israeli employees, using language similar to the Harvard complaint by accusing the school of having “turned a blind eye.”
DOJ SUES HARVARD OVER ACCESS TO RACE-BASED ADMISSIONS DOCUMENTS
Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.
The university has previously acknowledged problems tied to anti-Israel protests and campus tensions following the Gaza war, while also maintaining that it has taken steps to address antisemitism and reform campus policies.
